The Senate will come to a halt Thursday when the late Robert C. Byrd, the longest serving member in congressional history, receives a rare memorial before his beloved Senate chamber.

The West Virginia Senator, who served for 51 years, will lie in a closed casket, which will rest upon the same wooden catafalque that elevated Abraham Lincoln’s casket 145 years ago in the Capitol.

The Senate ceremony is the first staging area for a four-day funeral effort that will take Byrd’s body from the hallowed Senate chamber, to his home state of West Virginia for a memorial at a courthouse that bears his name, back to Andrews Air Force base in an airplane and finally to a resting ground in a private Arlington cemetery next to his wife of 69 years, Erma, who died in 2006.

The Senate galleries will remain open to the public during what promises to be a somber ceremony in the upper chamber Thursday, but the Senate will not be in session for a six-hour period.

Byrd, the longest-serving member of Congress in history, will be the first granted the honor of lying in repose since Sen. Joe McCarthy in 1957. Lying in repose is different from lying in state under the Capitol Rotunda — an honor given to 30 other Americans over the past 160 years.

The hearse carrying the Democrat’s body is expected to arrive at the Senate steps just after 9:30 a.m, according to a statement from Byrd’s office.

Flanked by an Honor Guard, the West Virginia Senator’s casket will be carried up the Senate steps into the U.S. Senate Chamber, where the casket will be place on the Lincoln Catafalque.

Family members of the 92-year-old legend will receive the respects of members beginning around 10 a.m., and the chamber galleries will be open to members of the public.

Senate Chaplain Barry Black is expected to offer a prayer at 10:30 a.m., after which the casket will remain on the floor until 4 p.m., when a waiting hearse transports him to Andrews Air Force Base.

After a nearly two-hour plane ride to Yeager Airport in Charlestown, West Va., Byrd’s casket will be taken to the Robert C. Byrd U.S. Courthouse for a public procession, which will end at the West Virginia State Capitol.

His body will lie in the Rotunda of the State Capitol for a public viewing Thursday night until 9 the next morning.

A memorial service and celebration of life in honor of Byrd will begin at 11:30 a.m. Friday in the West Virginia State Capitol, after which his casket will be flown back to Andrews Air Force Base.

Byrd is expected to be buried at Columbia Gardens Cemetery in Arlington, Va., a 38-acre expanse of rolling hills and rose gardens, a funeral home source said. It is one of the few cemeteries in the northern Virginia area that offers the option of an upright monument, which can be created by the cemetery’s monument company.

It was originally rumored that Byrd could lie in state under the Rotunda, but a more intimate gathering of senators, family and staff around his casket on the Senate floor would seem more appropriate, given the West Virginia Democrat’s role as the keeper of the flame for Senate traditions and privileges.

"The honor is the same regardless," said Associate Senate Historian Betty Koed. "They tend to make a distinction according to location, but it means the exact same thing."

Those who have received the honor of lying in state under the Rotunda include assassinated Presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. Three other people have received a similar privilege of lying in honor under the Rotunda, including Rosa Parks and two U.S. Capitol Police officers who were killed in the line of duty. Lying in the Rotunda requires a joint resolution by both chambers of Congress.

Holding Byrd's ceremony in the Senate will only take approval by the Senate — and will be slightly more private than lying in the Rotunda.

North Dakota Senator William “Wild Bill” Langer, was the last Senator to lie in the Senate chamber — Byrd was a freshman at the time, in 1959. A total of 48 funerals have been conducted there.

Byrd’s honor will be a slight monkey wrench in the congressional schedule. The Senate is currently preparing to head out of town for a week-long 4th of July recess.

Senate aides had expected the Senate to finish legislative business by the end of Thursday, but votes could potentially be pushed back into the later evening hours – potentially holding some lawmakers in town until Friday.

This week a black shroud covered Byrd’s desk in the Senate chamber – a bowl of white roses were placed on top. Dozens of congressional offices on both sides of Congress continue to issue statements of respect and condolences.